Here’s FrantikRam...
Let me start by saying I root for Goff every week and want to be wrong - I promise I do. There were clear cut examples of bad play calling last night for the Browns - the inexplicable draw on 4th down, not running the ball when they had goal to go at the end of the game and Chubb had been their best player all game.
McVay had none of that last night, and let's be honest - he usually doesn't have much of that. Sure, we threw the ball a lot - but their ENTIRE secondary was out - we should have been throwing a lot.
Having said all that, this is what I think is going on:
Last year the adjustments to slow this offense down were to basically force us into third downs by taking away our deep passing game and giving up 3-5 yards on the ground (or in the case of the Bears, playing our deep passing game while giving up 0 yards on the ground). How do you combat this? Perfect a short passing game. It's pretty clear to me that this was the major adjustment, because you see Kupp catching a TON of passes within 5-7 yards of the line of scrimmage, which is a big difference than how we utilized him last year. I also think this was the obvious solution to our OL getting weaker - short passes should equal quick passes.
But Goff is struggling with this, and teams are essentially getting us into 3rd downs and then challenging Goff to beat them. That, IMO, is why the offense seems to struggle so much in the first half - because Goff hasn't been able to. On top of that, in three games I believe we've really only taken one or two deep shots. At the same time, we're also getting new personnel groupings in the game, and it's clear that Todd is no longer Todd. So what you're dealing with is:
(slight) shift in offensive philosophy + new personnel groupings in game action + Gurley being a shell of himself
It's kind of amazing that we're 3-0 to be honest, especially when you factor that two of our five long trips are out of the way already. Our opponents are now 4-2 when not playing the Rams - so we've played some decent teams.
I believe Goff will settle in and pick this up; Allen and Boom will continue to get better; and Malcolm Brown needs to get as many carries as Todd, if not more. This offense probably won't average 30 points per game this year, but I'm okay with that - because offenses that average that many points almost never win Super Bowls.
